When the Waves Were High
by virotutis
Summary: What's a girl to do when she wakes up and suddenly finds herself on a deserted island stuck in a (not-so) fictional (anymore) manga series running longer than she's been alive? Scream. Mikaela screams a lot. (Self-Insert/OC fic)
1. 0

When she wakes, it's to the sound of the ocean in her ears. There's sand beneath her fingertips, a clear bright blue sky high above her, the warmth of the sun on her skin. Then, the startling realization that she explicitly doesn't remember being anywhere close to the coast hits her like a truck.

Scrambling to push herself up off the ground, she curses quietly when she starts to stumbles after she manages to stand. She takes a few steps forward, fighting against a sudden wave of nausea from getting up too quickly, and almost trips on her tan leather satchel bag. It's a close call; she had barely been able to catch herself before she fell face down into the sand.

Her eyesight is blurry, spots of black dancing in her vision, but she can see a stretch of beach in front of her. Her bleary eyes takes in clean white sand and gentle waves of beautiful cerulean crashing on the shore, along with a dense forested area and a few palm trees behind her. On her left is the remains of a beached, capsized shipwreck with a few missing boards of wood in its hull, dilapidated and falling apart due to both age and the constant ebbing of the waves. There's a few knocked over barrels lying on the sand next to it, just as old and worn as the rest of the sailboat.

She doesn't recognize this place in the slightest and she's starting to feel tears brim up at the corners of her eyes because she doesn't understand what the _fuck_ is going on.

The last place she knows that she was at was smack in the middle of the city, and she can feel the claws of slowly-building hysteria and anxiety settling in besides the overwhelming confusion and fear she's had stuck in her chest since waking because she has absolutely no clue where she is or what happened or who, or _what_ , brought her here and _why_ and she really wants to scream.

Suspicions about being abducted makes her feel sick with paranoia, heart beginning to race as she struggles to breathe from panic, and she places her hand above her chest. Lets her fingers and nail dig into the fabric of her shirt, into her skin while trying to force herself to calm down. Panicking won't help her figure out whatever the fuck is going on, so she can't panic.

After repeating those words to herself over and over like a mantra until she feels her breathing start to ease, she slowly lets her hand drop after she dabs at her eyes to wipe away the moisture in them. She still feels sick and her heart is still hammering in her ears, but it's bearable. It's manageable. She can deal with it until she can either figure out what's going on or find a safe enough place to hide and let herself break down completely.

The first thing she does is do a quick check of her person, trying to figure out if anything's been done to her and what supplies she has on her that her assumed kidnapper hasn't taken from her. Thankfully, besides the whole kidnapping thing and all, she doesn't feel like anything has been done to her. Whoever had taken her hadn't touched her at the very least.

Her dark hair is still tied up in a loose bun, albeit a rather smushed and messy one from her time spent lying on the ground, and her apparel is still the same as she last remembered. She still had her plain, open front and long-sleeved navy knit cardigan and heather gray v-neck on, along with her black jeans and black lace-up combat boots.

There's the familiar weight of her phone in the pockets of her jeans too, and she quickly fumbles to pull it out. She feels like crying or screaming— and, maybe, she even does start shrieking, just a little, judging by how she notices some seagulls burst out of the forest and fly away— when she taps the power button only to see that she doesn't any have service, killing her hopes of being able to call for help.

It's only a split second later, after all her hopes have died a violent and bloody death, that she notices the fact that she somehow has an internet connection. Then, all the frustration and rapidly returning hysteria in her turned into pure confused bafflement. How the fuck could she have fucking Wi-Fi if she doesn't have any signal?

She's starting to feel a headache come on because nothing at all is making any sense, but ultimately she decides that trying to figure out this latest mystery isn't worth pondering over right now when she can use this unexpected boon to her advantage. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that, right?

Immediately powering on her phone and tapping in her passcode to unlock it, she took the chance to open up her navigation app, trying to at least find out where she currently was. When her phone asks for a password to load the app though, she frowned in concerned confusion before closing it. Weird. She tries Twitter next, trying to see if she could ask for help. That doesn't work either though.

She stares down at the " _Please enter the password"_ message on her phone. What the fuck.

After some more fiddling around with her apps, she realizes that the only thing she has access to are a few of her mobile games and the Safari app, with access limited to only a few sites including: Wikipedia, wikiHow, and confusingly enough, just the One Piece category on a manga site. This time, she doesn't even bother to restrain herself, and just plops down on her back and starts screeching.

When all the seagulls within a half-mile radius have flown away in fright and she's managed to calm down a full ten minutes later, she sits up slowly and starts to reach for her bag to see what other bullshit could possibly happen to her this time. She quickly mutters a prayer before unbuckling the latches keeping the top folded over and closed so she can take a quick inventory at her things, hoping that nothing important has been taken or sabotaged.

She sees her change of clothes, a blue three-quarter sleeve baseball raglan tee and a pair of navy high-waisted balloon shorts, still neatly folded in the corner. When she pops open her glasses case, her reading glasses are in perfect condition. Her brown leather journal seems just fine too when she pulls it out to flip through it, all her writing still perfectly intact, and the nice fountain pen she splurged on as a birthday gift for herself is still working beautifully.

Her bag of disposable ball-point pens and the three cheap notebooks she has for jotting down notes aren't missing either. Her earphones and phone charger are still in the inside pocket of her bag. The strange-looking, murky gray apple in her bag with the weird swirls on it doesn't look bruised as well, so she supposes that at the very least her things haven't been touched.

Then it hits her and she freezes, staring at the apple, before vehemently beginning to pray that this is a stress-induced hallucination or _something._ Because she _knows_ what that fruit is and what it's associated with, and this just _can't_ be happening to her.

Slowly, she closes her bag and lies back down before pushing up one of her sleeves so she can pinch herself hard, hoping that she'll be woken up from this complete and utter nightmare. Unfortunately, it doesn't work and all she gets is pain and a small, nasty pinch bruise in her elbow.

"Fuck," she says loudly, to herself and the clouds leisurely floating above her because there's a fucking Devil Fruit in her bag and the implications that its existence in her presence is giving her has turned her headache into a fully-blown migraine now. " _Fuck_. How the fuck am I in _One Piece_ of all fucking things?"

* * *

It takes an hour of blankly staring up at the sky while trying to come to terms with the newest situation in her life before she finally finds the will to get up again. As comfortable as soaking in the sun while trying not to scream and sob her heart out was, it wasn't going to change her situation into anything better.

She can't exactly get the answer to why she's in the fictional universe of a weekly Japanese manga that's older than she is if she just lies there in the sand and does nothing, after all.

Inactivity doesn't fix problems. So, therefore, the only thing she can do is take action even if her legs feel like lead and she feels like she barely has the energy to move. She tugs her cardigan off and ties it around her waist before she decides to head into the forest to take a look around while the sun was still up in the sky.

If she's lucky, maybe she can find some food and shelter for the night. Maybe, even a way off the island. If she's unlucky, there could be a chance that she'll get mauled by a wild animal or something. She'll take the gamble; she doesn't have anything left.

So she pushes past a bush as she takes her first step into the forest, sliding her bag onto her shoulder. It's an easy walk, thankfully, where all she has to mind are a couple of stray tree branches in her face and a few large roots in the dirt, and she doesn't hear any other noise besides the sounds of her own footsteps.

Which pretty much means that there's no other form of life on this island but her, and that it's completely deserted. Getting off this island is going to be more complicated than she first expected. She still has to figure out where she is too. If she's in one of the Blues, then it'll be good. The Blues are safe enough.

Sure, there'll still be pirates and corrupt Marines with the potential to be worse than pirates, but those, unfortunately, exist everywhere. It's still much better than being dropped somewhere in the Grand Line with no way to defend herself.

Paradise might be iffy though, depending on how close to the Red Line she is, but she might be able to survive. God forbid her being alone in the New World though. She might as well go ahead and off herself early before something or someone comes and gives her a cruel and excruciatingly painful death.

It then occurs to her that another thing she has to do is find where the Strawhats are so she can figure out in the timeline she is. With any luck, she's still pre-time skip. She's really not that keen on suddenly being thrown into the period with a giant powder keg in the middle of the Grand Line, where every single faction with power is keying up for another war.

She's not ready for _Marineford 2: Marineford Harder_.

The thought of what happened during that arc makes her pause for a moment, feet stopping. She grimaces, remembering all the chaos and the tragic deaths of Whitebeard and Ace, before she forces herself to keep walking. Her leisurely pace speeds up a fraction as she tries to get rid of the sudden uncomfortable feeling she gets.

She can't help but remember the look of absolute _anguish_ on Luffy's face as he held his dying brother in his arms, the broken _howl_ he left out. Yeah, she's definitely not ready for that to happen any time soon. It's doubtful she'd actually be anywhere near Marineford when shit went down, but the fact that she knows exactly what happens there doesn't make her feel any better about it.

Although, speaking of Luffy...

She wonders if she should try and join the Straw Hats. Sure, life as one of them is dangerous beyond belief, judging by the type of shit they get into on a regular basis, but they're strong and they take care of their own. She's already got knowledge about their future opponents too so she'll at least be aware of any threats they'll be facing.

It'd definitely be better than her trying to face this strange world alone with her limited information; not to mention her chances of finding the answers she's looking for about how she's here would be better traveling around with them than it would be if she stayed on some island anyway.

They're good pirates and good people too, which is a plus, and as long as she can get Luffy's interest, it's a guaranteed that he'd let her on. If the Devil Fruit she has in her bag doesn't give her powers that attract his attention, then she's got eight years of piano lessons and five of choir to get his attention as the temporary holder of the musician role for his crew until Brook joins.

It'll work. She'll make it work.

By the time she's finalized her decision to join the Straw Hats, she's managed to find her way to the other side of the island and she stares at what's on this beach.

A sailboat in perfect shape and condition sits on the sand, a small sloop like the one her uncle owned that she used to sail with, and she almost falls on her face at least twice as she sprints over towards it, thanking every deity she can think of for this stroke of good luck. She almost cries when she notices the bag of supplies sitting inside it, giving her water and some dried meat, along with a few cans of foods. More importantly though, there's also a map and a compass.

There's a little note on the side of the map too pointing to an island reading, ' _you are here_ ,' so she can find her way to actual civilization. She's not sure who left this here, but she wants to give them a kiss because they deserve it.

Then she notices the letter at the bottom of the bag, and the desire to cry of happiness is immediately replaced with righteous fury after she reads it.

' _Good luck, Mikaela_ ,' it reads, with a small encouraging smiley face drawn next to the words. ' _You'll need it_.'

She screams. She definitely screams for real this time.


	2. 1

_It's been a thousand years, sorry. My laptop broke down for a while, then I got a job and was busy and ended up completely forgetting about this story. I finally found the document for this chapter so? Thought I might as well upload it and finish it._

* * *

A trend that Mikaela has noticed as she's gotten older is that you never truly appreciate things right until you really need them. For example, the conveniences that modern civilization and urban life provide or maybe the amazing versatility that electricity has that makes the quality of life for so many people so much better. Basically, it's the stuff that you tend to use on a daily basis and don't realize you should cherish.

Right now though, the thing that's at the top of that list is her good old Uncle Daniel who she hasn't seen since the divorce. When she was a young brat, he used to have to drag her kicking and screaming out of the house and away from her books for his bimonthly _bonding_ weekends.

He'd take her out sailing every summer, making her watch him run the boat on his own for years until he thought that she was old enough and then would make _her_ do it while he would supervise. He'd laugh while she struggled to keep the boat from capsizing and then would only help when the boat really _would_ capsize and she had already been halfway off the boat.

When they'd go camping and hiking with just the two of them, he'd make her carry the map and compass, giving her responsibility of ensuring that they don't get lost, and still laughing as she would stress and worry about the possibility that she'd actually get them lost.

As an eleven year old, it was far from being fun. She had made so many elaborate plans and came up with so many different excuses to try and get out of going with him, and every single time he would make her go anyway. If one looked for the definition of jackass in a dictionary, good old Uncle Daniel's picture would definitely be there as an example.

Still, even though Mikaela used to think of those trips as useless, unnecessarily stressful and incredibly upsetting, and a general waste of her time, as she's adjusting the heading of the sloop, she's ready to accept that maybe he _was_ a little right about their weekends together having a purpose. Even if this whole bullshit with being thrown into a different world was definitely not what he meant by it.

God knows that the English major she's working on isn't exactly doing anything for her. Her ability to write a six-page research paper within four hours and the number of articles she's written for the school's newspaper isn't helping her steer this boat right now.

Uncle Daniel might have put her through a bunch of shit when she was young, but the experience said shit is giving her is currently helping her survive through this nightmare so she thinks that she's going to forgive him a little.

Not completely, because those trips was the bane of her existence when she still had to go on them, but just enough that if she managed to get back, she'd give him a call and thank him for being enough of an ass to make a crying ten year old go out for weekend trips she obviously did _not_ want to be going on.

Without the survival skills that he pushed onto her, she would have been stuck on that island until someone came by. _If_ someone would have come by, honestly, because an empty island like that isn't much of a tourist attraction. She's not _naïve_ enough to believe that just reading a couple of wikiHow articles on how to sail a boat could save her inexperienced self from capsizing and drowning before she managed to get any further than twenty feet away from shore.

Beginner's luck could only take her so far, and unlike Luffy, she doesn't have the status of main protagonist to protect her from dying before the plot is over. Nor does she have the same stubborn tenacity and sheer willpower he has to survive.

Death is a very real threat for her. Pinching herself earlier proved that she could still feel pain and that she could still get injured, and her arms are still stinging from the physical exertion of having to push the boat into the water.

With the type of strength that people have in this world, she's going to get injured a _lot_ and she can only hope that just being in the _One Piece_ universe gives her body some of the physical resistance that she needs to survive here. She's not made of rubber like Luffy, nor does she have as much blood in her body as Zoro apparently does.

If her body is still the same as it was, then she'll need to figure something out quick or she'll basically be just be a walking piece of wet tissue paper to the type of enemies they're going to face. The foes they face just keep on getting progressively stronger and stronger, and she'll be fucked if she's late enough to not have a chance to even try to catch up.

Hell, she actually probably wouldn't even have to worry about the fights. Chances are, the Straw Hats themselves might end up taking her out by complete accident with the type of strength they have before an enemy can.

The thought of eating the Devil Fruit she still has in her bag makes her grimace, already feeling dread at the thought of the taste and knowing that she'll be giving up her ability to swim, but it's the only option she has right now. She doesn't have much in the way of defending herself besides a few martial arts classes she took when she was fifteen and a willingness to fight as dirty as needed, and it's doubtful that it'd be enough.

Hopefully it'll give her a useful ability. It'd be pretty great if it was a Logia-type, but she's not exactly counting on that. As long as she doesn't get something ridiculously niche like coral generation, she'll be a happy camper.

Although whatever she gets, she'll have to deal with it. If she really does get the ability to make coral, then she needs to find a way to properly utilize it. If Mr. 3 can fight with wax, then she could most definitely fight with coral. As useless as that ability sounds on paper, she knows that if she's clever with it then she can make it work. Devil Fruits are unpredictable things and the strength of one depends on the user. You just have to get creative.

She'll figure it out. She has to.

Mikaela doesn't know if dying here would send her back to the real world or if it would actually kill her for real, but she isn't quite keen on experimenting and finding out just yet.

Leaning back against the sloop's mast for some shade, she sighs loudly as she keeps an eye on her compass and map. She'll be damned if she gets herself hopelessly lost at sea immediately. Dying from starvation and dehydration because she got careless isn't very appealing to her, not when she hasn't even met the Straw Hats yet.

She might have some supplies, but they're only enough to last her a week— maybe a week and a half, depending on how she controls her portions. She doesn't even have a can opener for the cans she has either, so they're useless to her at the moment.

Thankfully, the winds have been good and she's heading for the next island without any complications. She's not sure if it's a stroke of good fortune or the intervention of whatever higher being dropped her in this world. Mikaela swears that she sees a smiley face in the clouds. She's tempted to curse it out, but manages to restrain herself. There's no point in yelling at clouds and wearing out her throat.

Even if it would make her feel a little better.

She's _sure_ this all is the work of a higher being though, because there's absolutely no way a normal human being could put her into a fictional world. Honestly, she's not sure if she should be glad that this being took her here or if she would have preferred being taken by some kidnapper instead. At least she's lucky that whoever, _whatever_ this being is seems reasonably benign.

It— they? Mikaela isn't sure what kind of pronouns to use for something that could possibly be a deity or something— might have dropped her in this world, but it didn't just kick her in and told her to swim. She was left supplies and a boat to get off the island, and along with a way to defend herself too, so she's unsure if it's something she could possibly consider a tentative ally.

She supposes that only time will tell. Mikaela feels uneasy though, thinking about how little she actually knows about anything right now and how she doesn't have any assurances at all, and her throat tightens from the anxiety creeping up in her. She swallows it down, pushing it away and shutting it down like she's been constantly doing since the very moment she woke up on that beach.

There's no point in thinking about it. Getting upset over this situation won't help her figure out anything. She needs to spend her energy thinking about something productive instead of wasting it on anxiety attacks or emotional breakdowns. She can already hear her father's voice in her head, a clipped snap of, _do not waste your time on something as inefficient as anxiety and panic; if you have the energy, attempt to do something more meaningful_ _instead._

As shitty as that was to hear when she was twelve and struggling with depression and an anxiety disorder, her father admittedly did have somewhat of a point. She might not have been able to help how she felt during situations, but she could at least have a choice in how she reacted. It was the only lesson that he taught her that she kept.

God though, Mikaela thinks as she slowly slides down against the mast until her back hits the deck, she really hopes she finds land soon. She's feeling way too restless, stuck alone on this tiny boat with limited options in activities.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of her father, she decides to do something to occupy herself instead. Opening her satchel, she reaches in to take out one of her notebooks, a pocket-sized one with a hard cover and an elastic closure, and one of her cheap pens. She could at least begin a plan of action, right?

With one hand, she pulls the band keeping the book closed off and flips it open to an empty page as she raises the pen to her mouth to bite the lid off. Keeping the lid between her teeth, she puts the pen to paper before starting to jot down a list of what she needs to do when she arrives on an island.

The first thing she needs to do is find out just where and _when_ she is and where the Straw Hats are. She needs to know which sea she's in so she can start planning out what to do next. She'll try checking the news for them first, and then asking around to see if anyone's heard anything about them or not if she doesn't see anything. Figuring out where they are is vital to determining where the timeline is currently at.

Second thing she needs to do is to eat her Devil Fruit. The sooner the better, because she'll need the time to practice with it and figure out what she can do with it before she gets into a fight. She'd like to eat it already and get it over with but right now, while she's all alone on the open sea, is the most awful time to suddenly become a hammer.

Third thing to do is to acquire a way to generate funds. When she looked in her wallet, she had found about 45,000 beli in it replacing the cash she had in there originally. She assumes that it's a good amount to start with, but it's still a limited source. She needs to find a way to get more. A job, maybe? She didn't think that she was really capable to mugging anyone.

Fourth thing would be to get more supplies and a can-opener. She'll need more food and water if she ends up needing to chase after the Straw Hats and some other miscellaneous things. Rope and an extra sail or two, maybe, and then some personal hygiene products depending on if they exist or not in this time period.

It was kind of hard to tell with One Piece; she really hoped that deodorant and tampons existed here in this time frame at least.

Fifth would probably be picking up more clothes for herself. All Mikaela has are the two outfits on her right now. She's not the type of person that needs many clothes but having to wear the same clothes for more than a couple of days isn't very hygienic after all. She understands why anime wardrobes are so limited, since it's a pain to keep designing more clothes, but she refuses to wear the exact same clothes for over a month.

The glide of her pen on paper stops when she starts to see what looks like an island come onto the horizon, and she almost falls out of the boat when she clambers around the mast to the front of the sloop to get a better look.

"Land ho," Mikaela whispers to herself with a wide grin as she raises a hand to shield her eyes from the light of the sun. "Land fucking ho."

* * *

It's a while before she gets close enough to the island to make out anything distinct. As nice as seeing dry land again looked, it told her absolutely nothing though about where she was though.

When she can make out more details of the island, she takes in the full sight of it. Greenery and high cliffs, and she can barely see the tops of a few high buildings peeking out too. It takes her a few moments to recognize where she's found herself— Mikaela's not sure if it's impressive that she can tell where she is just from looking at the island, or a little off-putting that she can _tell_ just from looking at the island.

Loguetown stands in front of her in all its glory, which quickly simplifies what she has to do for the first step of her list. With it in her sights, it's obvious that she's in East Blue. Now, she just has to find out where the Straw Hats are.

Thankfully, all she needs to do is check and see if Smoker's still in town. If he's there and still fighting off crooks, then she can just stay and wait for the Straw Hats to arrive and find them before they leave for the Red Line. If he's not there, then that means he's gone chasing after them and it'll be her turn.

With any luck, they won't be too far away either. She's not sure what she should do if she really has been dropped off after the time skip though because it's doubtful she'd be able to make it to the New World. She'll just have to hope that the higher being is still being nice.

By the time Mikaela manages to dock her sloop at the harbor, the afternoon is starting to bleed into evening. She's made good time, she thinks. When she started sailing, it was still early morning. She's glad that she's just not spending the night out on the ocean without anything to keep warm.

Although, spending the night in a town that all the pirates in the East Blue pass through without a blanket or anything to defend herself isn't much better, she thinks with a grimace. Mikaela might have beli on her, but she doesn't know if she has enough to spare for a hotel room. She'll check the prices, but if it's too much then she'll have to spend the night out on the streets.

The thought makes her uneasy, but it's not the first time she's done something like this before.

Before she enters the town, she takes a moment to transfer all of her supplies into her satchel bag, carefully arranging everything so it all fits. It's a bit of a struggle to fit all cans in and her bad bulges out, but she manages it. She'd rather not leave her only supply of food all alone in the open like this and get them immediately stolen.

Walking underneath the large arch at the entrance and making her way down the cobblestone street, she takes a look around and takes in the sight of the town. With the Loguetown arc only lasting about four chapters, she admittedly doesn't really have all that much information about this place. There had been a couple of anime filler episodes here from what she can remember, but she had never really watched any of them.

Growing much, she hadn't ever really had the time to sit down to binge anime. It was easier to sneak manga volumes into the house to read after-school as she waited to be picked up. With any luck, non-canon events wouldn't end up being relevant.

She holds back a large sigh at the thought of having to deal with the possibility of having gaps in her knowledge, then shakes her head to focus on taking in the town instead. The buildings in Loguetown are tall and surprisingly clean, with no graffiti or any weird suspicious stains on any of the white stone walls at all. It's a little weird, but she wonders if that's due to fear of Smoker kicking ass if he caught anyone vandalizing his town.

The place was beautiful though, both large and impressive. The rows of buildings on both sides of her went as far as her eyes could see, splitting into multiple different streets and hidden alleyways to lead deeper into the heart of the town. It was easy to see how Luffy ended up getting lost here; Mikaela worried that the same would happen to her.

Like in any tourist town, the place is still bustling with people even with the sun slowly dipping below the horizon. There are crowds out and about minding their businesses that she sidesteps and walks around as she makes her way down the street, deciding on how to go about completing the first objective on her list.

So, then it'd probably be easiest and quickest to just ask one of the residents if Smoker's still here or not, instead of spending time trying to find the Marine base or attempting to catch sight of him while he's on a patrol around town. Honestly speaking, she'd like to avoid as much contact with the Marines as possible.

Smoker especially, if he really was still here. It'd make running into him in the future during his chase after the Straw Hats a lot more awkward if he knew her in any capacity.

At the end of the street, right on the corner, there's a small shop with not much people around it and a sign above it that reads, _Rhonda's General Goods._ She heads for it as soon as she spots it, deciding to take the chance to go ahead and buy the supplies she needs. It's good that it doesn't look crowded too; she could take the chance to ask her questions.

Unlike the other stores though, the shop is surprisingly empty when she pushes the door open and enters it. There's only an older, heavyset woman with her hair tied up in a bun inside, standing at the counter and wiping it down as she hums the tune to a song that Mikaela can't recognize.

It must be closing time then, Mikaela realizes with a frown. She was hoping to be able to shop, but luck's not on her side right now, apparently. She still lingers in the doorway for a few moments though, trying to decide if she should just leave and ask someone else or not.

Mikaela knows how annoying it is to still have customers enter when you're trying to close shop from experience. She's worked in both the food industry and in retail before; she knows how hellish it can be. It's not as though she plans on sticking around very long after she asks, but she still doesn't want to be a bother or anything.

The woman makes the decision for her, however, when she looks up from the dishrag she was cleaning with and spots Mikaela standing around in her doorway, twiddling her thumbs. She looks a little surprised, but she waves her over with a friendly smile.

"You should have said something if you were there, sweetie," the woman laughs as she tucks the rag in her apron and wipes her hands on it before leaning against the counter. She smiles, bright and friendly. Motherly, even. "Did you need something?"

Mikaela hesitates for a moment but makes her way inside, stepping around a rack of items to stand in front of the counter. "Sorry," she says, folding her hands in front of her, "I don't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to ask a few quick questions."

"Nah, you're not interrupting at all," the woman assures with another smile. "Don't worry about it, honey. I'm about done cleaning up anyway. What did you need to know? You're not from around here. Are you a tourist? Looking for a hotel?"

"Yeah. I'm not from around here, so I'm looking for a place to stay. My funds are limited, so I need a place that costs a reasonable amount."

"Mm, the Mira Inn's got good prices. 5,000 beli a day for a single-bed room. There's breakfast and dinner too. If you don't quite have enough with you, you could talk out a deal with her. Old Mira's pretty fair. Her place is on the left side of town, past the execution stand."

Mikaela frowns slightly at the price but nods. She'd probably be able to stay there four nights at most without running too low for her supplies. It'd probably be better if she just stuck with making a deal with this Mira anyway; she needed as much money as she could get.

"Thank you. That's not the only thing I wanted to ask though, if that's alright."

The woman laughs again. "Course it is, sweetie. You don't have ask to ask a question or anything. Go right ahead."

"I might be staying for a while here," Mikaela starts delicately, trying to figure out how to go about asking about Smoker. Specifically asking about him might raise questions, so it'd be easier to start with a general question and proceed from there. "So I was just wondering what the Marines here were like."

"The Marines?" The woman looks slightly bemused but answers regardless. "Well, they do their duty. They're all good men. They protect us and our town from all the awful pirates that stop by here, the good Captain especially."

Mikaela hums thoughtfully, shrugging slightly. "That's good," she says, picking her next words carefully. She doesn't know if Luffy has dealt with Morgan yet or not so it's best to be vague. "There was a corrupt Captain running the Marine base in Shells Town, so I was a little worried. "

A scowl slides onto the woman's face as she clicks her tongue. "Ah, you're talking about that Axe-Hand guy that was arrested by his own men, right? What a _despicable_ man. No, no, though. Our Captain Smoker is nothing like him. He's a bit gruff and scary-looking, sure, but he cares for us."

Mikaela holds back a grin. There's the confirmation that she's looking for. Smoker's still here in Loguetown for the time being and Luffy's already started his journey. Perfect, now she just has to find out when in the timeline she is so she knows how much time she has to prepare herself.

"I see," she says in response. "That's all I wanted to ask. Thank you for your time, miss."

It'd probably be easiest to look at the list of bounties and see if Luffy's gotten his bounty yet, since the appearance of it would mean that Luffy's about to enter the Grand Line. If he doesn't have one yet, she can still figure out how long she'll be waiting for him by checking the bounties of the people he'll be fighting in the East Blue and seeing who still has theirs open.

The thought of having to stop by the Marine base anyway makes her fight back a grimace, but she really has to find out where Luffy is so she doesn't end up accidentally missing his visit to Loguetown. She'd actually break down and cry if she did.

"Of course, sweetie," the woman nods back with a warm smile. "Any time."

Mikaela returns the smile, beginning to leave and taking approximately four steps before she turns around with a sheepish laugh.

"Sorry, I... forgot I still had one more thing to ask you. Is your store still open right now?"


End file.
